Snake Indian Pursuing a Crow Horse Thief

Artist Alfred Jacob Miller (American, 1810 - 1874)

Dateafter 1837

Mediumwatercolor with pencil on paper

Dimensions6 x 8 1/4 inches (15.2 x 21 cm)
Frame: 11 1/2 × 13 1/4 × 5/8 inches (29.2 × 33.7 × 1.6 cm)

Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965

Object number31.34.40

ClassificationsPaintings

Label TextMiller’s romanticism found expression in a scene of Indian people capturing wild horses. He wrote about the subject. “As they approach the drove, the scene becomes intensely exciting; the Indians now riding in a perfectly reckless manner, their figures swaying to and fro with the motion of their steeds, display a rude natural grace.” Miller’s painting shows the drama of the chase. In his text, he admired the unerring skill of the ropers and their training of the horses they rode.

Provenance(Edward Eberstadt & Sons, New York, New York)[1]; purchased February 10, 1958 by H.J. Lutcher Stark [1887-1965]; bequeathed September 2, 1965 to the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art | 1. “We have been some ten or a dozen years amassing the rest of this collection from various individuals who were direct descendents[sic] of the pioneer artist himself.” (excerpt from a letter to HJLS from Charles Eberstadt dated November 26, 1957)

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